Bursting Bubbles
by CaliahAndTauran
Summary: Dave Strider finds himself dead again, and back in the dream bubbles. Who the hell is this troll? One-shot, rated T for language, DaveXEridan pale. PALE not pail.


**(A/N:**

**Caliah: Heya! We got a request for EridanDave from a guest user! So I'm gonna do it! I haven't ever written a pale fic, so let's see how it goes! I'm open to requests, I like making one shots X33 **

**Oh by the way reviews are love on any fanfic OwO)**

"Dammit."

A lone boy stood in a stark white room, his voice echoing.

"Another doomed timeline. I'm sure there's irony in this situation somewhere, but I'm NOT seeing it for once."

The boy rest his head against one of the walls, his blonde hair now out of place at the movement. His shades bumped against the snow white walls, pushing the bridge uncomfortably onto his nose.

"Guess I'll wait to see what dream bubble I end up in…."

Dave Strider continued mumbling to himself, debating if any of this was rap worthy, but decided against it. Without his notice, color began seeping into the walls, and shapes started to form.

"Of all the ways to die, I fucking swear this has to be the most embarrassin-"

"Wwho the fuck are you talkin' to?"

Dave whipped around his eyes widening behind his shades. Before him stood a troll. He scanned him up and down. Not one he'd met before. He had black hair with a streak of purple, gelled up in a wave. He wore a long sleeve shirt with two purple squiggles on it that Dave thought might be the aquarius symbol. The troll had on hipster glasses, which just made him scream wannabe hipster.

"The designer who made your pants. What the hell was he thinking?"

The boy narrowed his eyes.

"And wwhy are you in my hivve?"

Dave looked around. He was in a messy room, strewn with old books and weapons.

"Oh."

He must have recently died. He doesn't know he's in the dream bubbles. The blonde rubbed the back of his head, not sure how to break it to the poor guy. Since he was a time player it was relatively easy to remember what his life had been like all the way up to his death, and a few of his other selves deaths. He'd been told it wasn't so easy on other people.

"Oh wwhat? I asked you a fuckin' question you piece of scum."

"Cool it fish-boy," Dave said, looking at the troll's fin ears.

Had he heard about this one? Arisan? Erafan? Huh. The knight stuck out his hand, flashing the sea-dweller a smug smile.

"Dave Strider. Sorry for crashing your crib, but I'm lost."

"Eridan. Eridan Ampora."

Ah, Eridan That was it.

"I could kill you, ya knoww."

The troll was smiling right back at Dave, sharp teeth showing through his lips, and hands on the large gun at his hip. Dave held up his hands defensively.

"Woah woah woah there, Eridan, dude. You could just hang with me instead. Or something."

The violet blood's fins twitched, and he cocked his head.

"Wwith… You?"

"Yeah?"

"You just broke into my hivve."

"Heh, what are friends for?"

The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds, before Dave's poker face broke into a grin. Soon after they were both laughing.

"I guess you can stay. For noww," Eridan said in between chuckles.

"Got any apple juice around here?"

"Wwhat's apple juice?"

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

It was always hard to tell how much time passed in the dream bubbles. Even Dave had trouble keeping track. Not that he was even trying in the first place.

"Agh! Watch it! You almost hit my face!"

"That's wwhere I wwas aimin' dumbass"

Dave clutched at his chest dramatically.

"You wound me sir."

"Not yet!"

Eridan aimed towards Dave's head once more and pulled the trigger. The slightly shorter boy dove out of the way, ending the movement in a smooth roll.

"Missed again!"

"These 'Nerf guns' are cool, wwhere'd you get them?"

Dave paused, thinking. He couldn't say he just made them appear, that would raise questions with the inevitable end of Eridan finding out he was dead. He had to learn that on his own. And telling him they originally came from the planet earth wasn't wise either. Eridan seemed to get that Dave wasn't a troll, but never really implied he thought of him as an alien. Maybe he met one of the humans in his time line and his consciousness didn't really think anything of it?

"Uh…"

The human yelped as a dart hit him straight in the forehead.

"Point fivve for me, I wwin!"

The sea-dweller smirked at Dave.

"Rematch?"

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

More time had passed, and any thought Dave had about leaving this dream bubble to explore others, was safely tucked into the back of his mind. He had no idea what caused him to drop his carefully made cool mask, but he felt like the answer had to do with a certain violet blooded troll. Dave would hate to admit it, but Eridan Ampora was slowly replacing John as his best bro. Well, at least John wasn't his only bro friend anymore.

Both of the boys were lounging in the nutrient block now, Dave sitting on a counter and Eridan rifling through cabinets.

"Do you like grub sauce?"

"I've never had it, and I think I'd like to keep it that way."

Eridan looked slightly affronted, and stuck his tongue out at Dave.

"Mature."

Dave smirked and jumped of the counter, narrowly avoiding the bottle of grub sauce that was thrown at him.

"You knoww, my lusus use to lovve grub sauce. He'd follow me around the hivve until I gavve him some."

The troll was looking off into the distance fondly, small smile spread across his features. The look slowly faded.

"Use to? Wwhy'd I say that…"

Dave winced beneath his glasses. He was starting to remember.

"Wweird. Anywway, wwanna wwwatch a movvie after this?"

"Depends howw lame it is," you reply, mocking his voice.

The bottle of grub sauce was once again picked up, and Eridan wound up his arm prepared to throw it. Dave ducked behind the counter, the bottle bouncing off the surface.

"Troll Harry Potter isn't lame! Wwell besides the fact that magic isn't real. The idiots misnamed it, it's wwhite science."

"White science? Right."

"It's real! Kan made me my own wwhite science wwand and-"

The sea-dweller seemed to pause, a horrified expression across his features.

"Wwait no she… That didn't happen!"

Eridan sank to his knees. Images were flashing through his mind. A grey room, computers lining the walls, and trolls everywhere. Feferi glaring at him, smiling at the mustard blood. Kanaya handing him a wand, while rolling her eyes. Fuchsia blood. The sound of a chainsaw. Pain.

"Oh Gog," he sputtered.

Dave was instantly next to him, kneeling on the floor. It was happening. Soon Eridan would remember it all. Said troll slowly looked up at the blonde, clearly upset.

"Dave, I think I'm dead."

The human sighed, pulling Eridan to his feet carefully.

"We need to talk."

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"That all really happened?"

Eridan was laying on a pile of Nerf darts that Dave had made, staring at the ceiling.

"Yeah."

"Did you know I was dead?"

Dave nodded, apologetic expression also aimed at the ceiling.

"You should'vve told me."

"We aren't suppose to. Once dead, you need to figure things out on your own."

"You said this was like a memory? I don't remember you bein' here, so howw come…?"

The taller boy appearified a mirror, and handed it to Eridan. He gazed into it, slightly disturbed to see pure white eyes looking back at him.

"When you're first dead, you don't remember anything. You just know what you knew in the dream bubble you're in. They're memories. Once you start to remember what happened when you were alive, they fade to white. Other people can travel into the bubbles, but there's so many that it's always by chance."

"That doesn't explain anythin'," said the troubled sea-dweller, turning on his side to face Dave.

Dave turned to face the troll, an arm pillowing his head. With his other hand he slipped off his glasses. White eyes met white.

"You'vve been dead this wwhole time?"

"Kind of ironic, isn't it?"

Eridan rolled his eyes and bumped Dave's shoulder with his own.

"You could've moved on to another bubble, wwhy stay here?"

"I guess at first I felt bad, and didn't want you to realize you were dead by yourself. Then we started hanging out, and you kinda became my friend."

"Oh."

Eridan's eyebrows furrowed.

"Hey Dave?"

"What?"

"Howw'd you die?"

The human chuckled.

"It was so fucking lame, I tripped down some stairs on the meteor and broke my neck."

"That is lame. Almost as lame as you, in fact."

"You wish you could be as lame as me."

"In your dreams wwriggler!"

The two boys joked around for awhile longer before they fell quiet.

"Did you evver learn about troll quadrants?"

"A little from Rose, yeah. Why?"

Eridan fiddled with the sleeve of his shirt before replying.

"I havven't had a good track record wwith keepin' them filled. But uh, any chance you'd go pale wwith me?"

Dave quickly filtered through the information Rose told him about pale relationships. Was that the third wheel one? No. Moirails. Was that it?

"Like moirails?"

The high blood huffed, rolling his eyes.

"No, like my slavve. Yes, like moirails!"

Finally it clicked. Moirails were the ones who kept each other under control and talked to each other on piles of stuff like they were doing now. Rose had described them as soul mates, but in friendship.

"I don't know, you seem a little high maintenance."

Eridans face fell, but upon seeing Dave's grin he shot up. Grinning back, the troll punched the blondes shoulder.

"Asshole."

"I know," said Dave, also sitting up.

"Yeah, I'll be your moirail."


End file.
